Destroyer quality and procurement affordability

Smaller naval powers can become caught in a cycle of buying better ships while being able to afford fewer of them. Each improved design costs more, but the budget does not necessarily rise with it. Italy's restrained destroyer designs can be read as an attempt to avoid that cycle. The competing criticism is that buying cheaper ships becomes a false economy when they do not meet the fleet's needs. The procurement problem therefore requires judging the capabilities of the resulting force alongside the number of hulls purchased.